MIGRATION FLOW, a 2-day celebration conceived by Alfonso Prez Acosta, will take place October 27-28 marking the first public celebration of National Immigrants Day in Virginia. Alfonso, a Colombian visual artist and teacher, is the Art Program Director at Sacred Heart Center in Richmond. He says the goal of MIGRATION FLOW is to connect multicultural communities through drawing, dance, music, food, drink and conversation.
Through the fluid motion of watercolor drawings and dance, MIGRATION FLOW will encourage what Alfonso terms “joyful resistance” against historically unjust systems and negative imagery about immigrant communities in the U.S. Drawing and dance create a third space of home, identity, and belonging where according to Alfonso, “movement is wider and becomes magical and miraculous through the transitional process of migration. By moving to a different place you may not be able to communicate in your primary language or culture. Opening up a third space—of drawing and dance—allows communication of these complex, layered images and ways of being.”
MIGRATION FLOW will dive fully into this third space, providing an environment for participants to dwell in the unknown (of multicultural languages, dance, music, and food) and plunge into deeper connection and possibility with others from differing immigrant communities.
In addition, Alfonso will unveil 7 portrait drawings of diverse dancers who will then perform live on Oct. 27th. Audience members will have an opportunity to meet and connect with one another, create drawings as part of a live exhibition, and learn new and different dances through a workshop and a closing party. On Oct. 28th, Alfonso and participating dancers will share their migration and dance stories in an intimate conversation with the audience.
During the event, there will be a MIGRATION FLOW Silent Auction where Alfonso Perez Acosta’s portraits of the dancers can be purchased. The Silent Auction will open on October 27th and close on the 28th. All proceeds from the auction will go towards the continued growth of Virginia’s National Immigrants Day celebration event in 2020 and beyond.
MIGRATION FLOW will take place at CANVAS (3108 Semmes Ave).